DR. EUGENE TAY
Eugene is a behavioural scientist who is passionate about protecting and enhancing the welfare of individuals in organisations and society. His primary research interests include organizational behaviour (e.g., incivility, bystander intervention), health services research (e.g., person-centered care), and decision making (e.g., shared decision making). He employs laboratory and online experiments, field studies, and organizational surveys for investigating phenomena of interest, generating insights to inform theory and practice.
He is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Behavioural and Implementation Science Interventions (BISI), NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. He is working on several projects, ranging from digital health interventions that promote self-management in patients to workplace civility in hospitals.
Eugene has previously worked for the Behavioural Insights Team in HMRC and the UK Consumer Rights Association. He is a member of the Academy of Management, Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, and American Psychological Association.
What is behavioural science?
Behavioural science is the study of an organism's behaviour and/or interaction with others in its naturalistic setting. Human behavioural science draws on multiple-disciplines and employs experiments, qualitative methodologies, neuroscience, and field observations to gain insights on the mechanisms underlying human behaviour in the natural world.
The study of behavioural science has produced four notable Nobel Prize Winners since 1978, including Herbert Simon, Daniel Kahneman, and more recently Richard Thaler.
Behavioural science in practice
Behavioural science is evident in many domains, including health and social care, economics, law, marketing, operations research, and organisational behaviour. The Behavioural Insights Team, also known as the "Nudge" unit, actively works with governments around the world to make evidence-based policies and practical changes to improve public welfare. Some recent applications of behavioural science can be found in the battle against COVID-19 and sexual harassment.
